In Defense of the Realm
by BrightStar
Summary: Kitty gets an unexpected call from an old friend. Seems he needs some of her expertise, but Connor has no idea just how much she can help him with these 'anomalies.'


Title: In Defense of the Realm

Genre: X-Men/Primeval Crossover

Rating:T, possibly M

Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval or The X-Men. They are both owned by people much more creative than me. I make no money off of this. Just the enjoyment of playing with someone else's toys. I'll put them back when I'm done.

Summary: Kitty gets an unexpected call from an old friend. Seems he needs some of her expertise, but Connor has no idea just how much she can help him with these 'anomalies.'

Author's Note: Thank you to scifichick774 and shadowglove88 for the help, encouragement and inspiration. You ladies are my idols and heroes. Thank you. This is unbeta'd. Any and all mistakes, typos and incongruities are my own. Please be kind and review.

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><p>Kitty heaved a sigh as she sat at the computer console. <em>Monitor duty sucks<em>, she thought to herself. _'Why is it that I always pull security detail when the computers need revamping? Why do I always say yes to this crap? Oh, yeah, I'm the resident computer genius at the moment, that's why...'_ She grumbled under her breath.

Just as she was getting ready to start a massive system wide defrag, the video console lit up with an incoming call.

_Hmmm, Coming from overseas? Well, it's not the direct line from Muir Island, but definitely from that part of the world, better answer and check it out._

"Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, this is Katherine, How may I help you today?" she asked while keeping the vid-screen up close on her face. It wouldn't due for outsiders to see her uniform on screen.

"Kitty? Kitty Pryde? Is that you?" She heard a familiar, if distant voice call out over this comm.

She looked at the screen for a moment before recognition hit her and her eyes lit up. She gave a little squeal of delight.

"Conner is that you? Oh my god! It's been ages, how are you? Wait, how did you get this number and what did you do to your hair?" Kitty exclaimed.

"I'm great, brilliant actually, but I need your help Kit Kat. Any chance of you taking a sabbatical to help out an old friend?" he asked sheepishly.

Kitty looked a little closer at the screen, from the background he appeared to be in a relatively state of the art facility. _What had he gotten himself into?_ She wondered. _Was this some new conspiracy theory he was working on?_ The last Kitty had heard from Conner he was working on his dissertation about how ALIENS had killed off the dinosaurs.

She had met him while at boarding school in England during her Excalibur days. While the rest of the team was galavanting across time and space, she had been stuck on Earth 616. He'd been at one of the 'Cat's Laughing' concerts. Turned out he was a friend of one of the guys and they hit it off right away. Later she'd been and enrolled in St. Searle's School for Young Ladies. The stupid administrators at Oxbridge University thought she needed better socialization skills before admitting her to Uni. Stupid bureaucrats. Having someone close by that she knew while everything was going wrong helped her stay grounded. He'd kinda been her saving grace.

While at first she had definitely not hit it off with the other girls at the school, with Conner's help, she was able to find common ground and eventually make friends and save St. Searle's from financial disaster. Not long after that, Excalibur had returned to this Earth and she went back to the team, only sending occasional e-mails to Conner when time permitted.

_Come to think of it, I haven't heard from him in almost a year. That's strange, he is usually so good about keeping me updated, even when it takes me a while to get back to him. Now I just feel like I've been neglecting the poor bloke._ She smiled to herself, barely 30 seconds on the vid-screen with him and already she was slipping back into her British colloquialisms.

She looked back to the vid-screen and smiled, "Anything I can do to help, you know I will, what do you need?" she asked.

Conner looked sheepish again and shrugged, "What do you know about time anomalies and how soon can you be in London?"

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><p>Kurt was flying her over in one of the mini-jets. He would stop at Muir and see Moira and the others while she was in London helping Conner with whatever it was he needed help with. Conner had been rather vague. Something about the Official Secrets Act. Oh well. She'd find out when she got there.<p>

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><p>Conner was nervous. He told Kitty he'd meet her at the coffee shop across from the ARC on the off chance Lester would allow her into the building. She was the only person he knew who was smart enough to help him, but open minded enough not to laugh in his face when he told her what he needed. Lester said he could tell her enough about the project to see if she would help, but before going into detail, she'd have to sign the OSA paperwork before actually being told anything of use.<p>

He remembered first meeting Kitty at the 'Cat's Laughing' concert. One of his mates from school had been working with the band and one night they had this Yank backstage. He tried to strike up a conversation, but she was too into the music. After the concert he heard her talking to one of the band about the quantum mechanics involved in a real life teleportation device and he had to get in on that conversation.

Once he learned she was as much of a nerd as he was, he didn't feel the usual anxiety that came with talking to pretty girls. She was just like him, a science geek and totally into parallel realities, government conspiracies, and alien abductions! How could he not like her.

That was 4 years ago and they had kept in touch. Over e-mails he would shoot off strange theories and she would refute them, then turn around and give him solid evidence that something like that _could_ happen. It was fantastic.

And here he was working on one of the largest conspiracies ever and he couldn't even share it with anyone not sanctioned. He was pacing again, he really needed to stop doing that it made him look like a spaz. So he sat down on the bench in front of the shop. _I hope she gets here soon and doesn't freak out on me. But if anybody will be able to take all this with a grain of salt, it's Kitty Pryde._

He looked up and down the street once more before settling back against the bench and reminiscing of the past once more.

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><p>Kitty walked up the street towards the coffee shop Conner had mentioned. It had been a long time since she'd been back to London. London reminded her of Pete. And Pete, well, if she were honest with herself, Pete still made her heart ache just a little bit. He was her first grown up relationship. He would forever hold a special place in her heart, filled with smelly cigarettes and a snarky attitude.<p>

That thought made her smile as she caught sight of Conner sprawled on a bench outside the cafe. He perked up when he heard her chuckle and bounced to his feet.

"Kit Kat!" he exclaimed and ran over towards her swinging her up into his arms and twirling her around a little. She laughed and indulged him.

"Put me down Conner." she laughed. "I'm happy to see you too, but put me down. Don't make me use my mad ninja skills on you" she said with a smirk.

He immediately placed her back on the ground and took a small step back. He remembered well the last time she had threatened him with her ninja skills, he though she was joking, he learned just how wrong he was. He took a good look at her and almost did a double take when he saw what she was wearing.

When he first knew her, she was always wearing leggings and oversized sweatshirts. That was far cry from the form fitting cargo pants, tank top and biker jacket she was currently sporting.

"It's great to see you Kitty. Now I can't go into too much detail, Lester won't let me, but..."

"Wait, did you just say Lester?" Kitty interrupted him. "Surely not James Lester? Smarmy git with an overdeveloped opinion of himself?"

Conner blinked at her, "How'd you guess?"

"We've met."she said dryly.

"Well, I can't go into detail until you've signed the OSA, but..." he started once more only to be interrupted again.

"Completely unnecessary Conner. I'm a card carrying member of MI-13. I have clearance even you don't." she replied.

Conner just blink at her again. _MI-13? What the bloody hell is that? _

"Well, you can't get into the building without proper clearance and Lester said I couldn't tell you too much until you had been vetted, so..." he tried once more to tell her what the situation was.

"No problemo. Lead on MacDuff," she said.

Conner just stared at her for a moment before shaking his head. _What the hell, why not, with Kitty you never know._ And he lead her off to the ARC. Hopefully he would still have a job in the morning.

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><p>He was completely gobsmacked. They were currently standing in the epicenter of the ARC. Kitty had waved her credentials at each checkpoint and was given clearance to pass. Some of the security guards even greeted her by name, asking after someone named 'Wisdom'. Hmm, he'd have to ask her about that sometime.<p>

After walking through the gauntlet of security, they entered the hub. After taking a brief look around Kitty looked at Conner.

"Well, boy genius, what exactly do you need me here for? It looks like you have a pretty nice set up here." Kitty said.

Conner shifted his feet nervously while looking around him.

"Well, it's like this, really..."he started before being interrupted by a booming voice from above him.

"Conner! Who is this woman, and what is she doing in my Control Centre? Didn't I tell you she had to be vetted before being allowed into the ARC? Why must I always repeat myself?" Lester yelled at Conner from his office platform.

Kitty smirked as she turned to look up at Lester.

"Hello James. How lovely to see you again. I see you haven't changed a bit. Still terrifying the masses? I would have thought you would have moved on from the paranormal after our last encounter." Kitty said to him with a smirk.

John Lester looked down on the woman standing beside Conner with a slightly bewildered look.

"I'm sorry madam, do I know you?" he said to her. He was getting a funny feeling in his stomach. Almost like dread. It was the same feeling he got whenever Cutter wanted to try something foolish and ridiculously expensive.

He took a good long look at her, she did look vaguely familiar...then she raised a single eyebrow at him and winked at him. Winked! At him! Wait. Why was that ringing a bell in the back of his mind? Oh god. Not her, anybody but her!

"Good Lord, please tell me that is not Ms Katherine Pryde standing in my Control Centre. Conner! When you told me you needed to consult an outside source, why in the world did you decide _this_ Yankee creature was the one you needed to consult with?" Lester sniped at Conner.

Conner looked up at Lester with a shocked expression on his face, "Wait, you know Kitty, how do you know Kitty?" he asked.

Kitty looked over at Conner after a sly look at Lester. She turned to Conner and told him, "Well, that's complicated and classified Conner. I'm not sure you have the proper clearance for that information. What I can tell you is it involved some sensitive government information. I was brought in with a team of specialists to correct an oversight by previous management." Kitty smiled to herself. That was the understatement of the century.

She glanced up at Lester just in time to see him roll his eyes at her.

"But enough about me and James! What do you need my expert advice on Conner?"

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><p>Conner spent the next couple of hours explaining to Kitty about anomalies, time storms and the tech used to contain and located each. He told her about Helen and Nick Cutter, how they originally discovered the anomalies and what they had interacted with during each creature incursion.<p>

During this time, team member trickled in and she was introduced to Stephen, Abby, Nick, Jenny and Oliver Leek. She got a slimy feeling when she shook Leek's hand. She had to stamp down the desire to wipe her hand on her pants. She hit it off with Abby right away, but she was reserving her opinion of the others until she had spent more time with them.

Once Conner gave her the basics of the operation he started going into detail into the problem he was having with the anomaly detection device. It seemed he was having some difficulty calibrating the timing device.

She took a seat at the anomaly detection device and started reading and typing code. After about 20 minutes straight of typing at light speed she exclaimed, "Aha! Gotcha! I've found your problem Conner. You weren't planning for the probability of alternate realities. Once I programmed that into the code, you shouldn't have any problem with the device." She turned to beam at him, only to realize the only person still around was Cutter.

He was looking at her with a bewildered expression. "Alternate realities? You mean we aren't just talking about moving through time in a linear fashion, we have to start taking multiple dimensions and probabilities into account?"

Kitty took a closer look at Nick Cutter. Would he be open minded enough to hear her expostulate on her old team's 'Cross-Time Caper'? She kept her assessing gaze on his dismayed expression. Yes, he would. So she started to regale him with stories of Excalibur's trip through the time and space. Even though the information was technically classified, she figured with all that he had been through he could handle being told.

Here in England they still weren't as inundated with mutants and the associated troubles that came with them. Very rarely did Brian have to venture away from Roma, the Omniversal Guardian. He and Meggan no longer resided in this plane, they preferred to stay in the Omniversal Palace so they could be dispatched wherever and 'when'ever they were needed.

She finished up by telling him about fixing 'Widget' the robot that was responsible for the team's dimensional hopping. During her storytelling most of the team had wandered back into the Control Centre. As she was just winding up her tale, the anomaly detection device went off with a blaring siren.

"Anomaly detected." Conner went to the device and located where the newest anomaly was located. This one appeared to be inside of the River Thames.

"Alright team, let's move out. If Miss Pryde doesn't have anything better to do, perhaps she'd like to tag along and see what it is we do here. Run along now. Things to do." Lester shooed them out of the Control Centre and they set off for the anomaly.

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><p><em>Ugh, I'm all wet now. Why did I decide I needed to get involved with these yahoos? Oh yeah, Conner. He was so distraught when Abby was taken, I couldn't help myself. What I didn't take into account was ending up being thrown into a pool of rain run-off and having to fight killer mutant walruses. That's definitely a new one. <em>

_Luckily I was able to fight off the beast without using my powers. Who am I kidding? It was lucky Stephen showed up when he did. I have to say, there is something incredibly yummy about an Englishman and a gun._

Kitty started humming to herself as she entered the locker room at the ARC. All she wanted now was a hot shower and clean clothes and maybe a nap. The nap would have to wait of course, James was waiting for a debriefing in his office.

She striped off her wet clothes, wishing she'd brought her bag with her from Brian's flat in the city. As it was, she'd have to borrow some of Abby's spare clothes for now. Unfortunately all Abby had was her workout clothes, and those were less than concealing. A pair of tiny running shorts and a tank top. But beggars couldn't be choosers.

Just as she finished slipping on the borrowed clothes, a knock came on the door. She turned as it opened to reveal Nick Cutter.

"Kitty, can I have a word?" he asked.

She looked at him and shrugged, "Sure Professor, what can I do for you," she said as she took a seat on the bench in front of the lockers and looked up at him expectantly.

"Please, call me Nick," he said with a smile, "I understand you've had quite a lot of experience with time portals. What can you tell me about alternate realities as they effect dimensions?"

Kitty looked up at him and studied his somewhat hopeful expression. How much should she tell him? So far these anomalies had been relatively self contained, but if what she knew became general knowledge, well, it might just cause mass hysteria. Oh well. In for a penny, in for a pound.

"Have a seat Nick. It's a long story."

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><p><em>tbc...<em>


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